Debate

———————————
Homosexuality

(FAVOUR)
through the conclusion i would like to
clear some doubts that many people
have regarding homosexuality

#1:Gay marriage
harms the institution
of traditional
marriage.
Your Response: Okay, then name one
demonstrable, tangible effect that
same-sex marriages have on the
functioning of individual heterosexual
marriages. The ability of same-sex
couples to get married doesn’t alter a
single aspect of heterosexual marriages
— directly or indirectly. The legal rights
and benefits of heterosexual couples are
completely unaffected by the existence
of gay marriage. It’s not as if straight
couples suddenly start loving each other
less or start treating their kids worse
once gay people start getting married.
Have marriage rates been in decline
since states started legalizing gay
marriage? Well, sure, but marriage rates
have been declining since the 1970s ,
decades before any U.S. jurisdictions
legalised gay marriage.

Marriage has
#2:
always been between
a man and a woman.
Legalising gay
marriage would be
changing thousands
of years of tradition.
Your response: A lot of things were
“always that way” before they were
changed. For example:
• Dictatorial rule by kings and emperors

• Lack of any legally recognised human

rights
• Prohibition on land ownership by

people without royal blood

• Ritual human sacrifice

• Curing medical ailments with spells and

magic
Should we go back to doing all of that?

The purpose of
#3:
marriage is to
procreate, and same-
sex couples can’t
have children.
Your Response: So should we also
prohibit straight couples from getting
married if they’re biologically not able to
have lids? What about if they simply
don’t want kids?
The percentage of married couple with
children has been declining over the last
25 years, but couples who don't want
kids can still get married. And does
adoption count? Because around 19
percent of same sex couple adopt kids.
In addition, there are plenty of legal
benefits — like hospital visitation rights,
joint tax returns, welfare benefits for
spouses, and estate inheritance — that
married couples enjoy regardless of
whether or not they choose to have
children. Should the government
prevent straight couples from receiving
those benefits until they have kids?

#4:If we legalize gay

marriage, it's a
slippery slope to
polygamy, incest,
and/or bestiality.
Your Response: I’m arguing for one law,
and one law only: Legal marriage rights
for same-sex couples. Anything else is a
different policy argument altogether.
Overturning bans on gay marriage has
no legal effect on polygamous,
incestuous, or — sigh — human being-
animal relationships. Those are separate
areas of law, and they won’t be affected
by the existence of marriage rights for
gay couples.
If you’re saying that allowing gay
marriage will set a legal precedent for
legalising other types of relationships,
you need to have some sort of evidence
as to why that might happen.

Children raised by
#5:
heterosexual parents
are more emotionally
well-adjusted than
those raised by
same-sex parents.
Your Response: Zero data supports this
assertion, and studies from around the
world have all supported the opposite
conclusion. Here’s what a 2013
Australian study comparing gay and
straight families concluded:
On measures of general health and
family cohesion, children aged 5-17
years with same-sex attracted parents
showed a significantly better score
when compared to Australian children
from all backgrounds and family
contexts. For all other health measures,
there were no statistically significant
differences.
Here’s an American study from the
same year that focused on adopted
children:
An estimated 16,000 same-sex couples
are raising more than 22,000 adopted
children in the U.S., and these findings
indicate that these children will likely
fare no differently, as a result of their
family type, than those being raised by
heterosexual parents.
And here’s the American Academy of
Pediatrics, which analyzed on over 3
decades of data child development in
same-sex families:
Extensive data available from more than
30 years of research reveal that children
raised by gay and lesbian parents have
demonstrated resilience with regard to
social, psychological, and sexual health
despite economic and legal disparities
and social stigma. Many studies have
demonstrated that children's well-being
is affected much more by their
relationships with their parents, their
parents' sense of competence and
security, and the presence of social and
economic support for the family than by
the gender or the sexual orientation of
their parents.
In short, there’s no evidence to support
the claim that children with same-sex
parents are worse of — and, once again,
“I have an intuitive feeling that they
probably are worse off” doesn’t count as
evidence.

now moving on towards the last wrong

assertion that people have about
homosexuality.
If same-sex
#6:
marriage is legal,
religious institutions
that oppose gay
marriage will be
unfairly forced to
marry gay couples.
Your Response: Legalizing gay marriage
won’t have any bearing on what
churches, or other religious institutions,
can or can’t do. The Supreme Court has
long upheld the right of tax-exempt
religious organizations to fire, hire,
discriminate or not discriminate based
on gender and sexual orientation. While
same sex in Denmark do have the legal
right to get married in churches, there’s
zero precedent for U.S. courts ruling the
same way.